


Reactions

by prepare4trouble



Series: Little By Little [23]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: AP-5 being mean, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Don't get on the wrong side of Kanan Jarrus, Gen, Hobbie asks a lot of questions, Inconsiderate People, Intrusive questions, Minor Original Character(s), Passive Aggressive Revenge Tactics, Protective Sabine Wren, Spread of Information, Visually Impaired Ezra Bridger, Zeb is good at intimidation, and basically being AP-5, and sarcastic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-13 08:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10510467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prepare4trouble/pseuds/prepare4trouble
Summary: As the information spreads around the base, the crew begin to encounter reactions from other base personnel.





	1. Chapter 1

It had been some time since Kanan had had the chance to meditate outside. In fact, it had been longer than he liked since he had had the opportunity to meditate at all. When things got tough it was easy to let that be the first thing sacrificed, put off until later; and sometimes that was okay, as long as he found the time later and didn’t just put it off again, and again.

Sometimes, he worried that he was picking up bad habits from Ezra.

It bothered him that Ezra didn’t meditate, or at least didn’t do it often. He had to be prompted and cajoled into it, but if he could just learn to set aside a few minutes each day, it would be more useful to him than he knew. Unfortunately, Ezra had a tendency to do things the hard way, and it wasn’t something that was going to help him over the coming years. 

Kanan took a deep breath. The air, though more or less fresh, was tainted with the slight odor of starship fuel. Judging by the direction of the breeze, his favorite meditation spot should be free of that.

It still felt strange, sometimes, to feel the sun on his face and not to see a glare of light to match the intensity of the heat. It was one of the few things about his blindness that could still unsettle him. If he ignored the feeling, it usually passed quickly; today, however, it left him a little shaken as he considered the possibility that Ezra might one day have the same reaction. He didn’t know quite what to do with that thought, so he ignored it too. There was nothing that he would be able to do about it anyway.

Instead, he took a deep breath of air. The odor of the fuel was clearing already and despite any troubling thoughts it might provoke, the sun on his face and the heat slowly soaking through his clothing to reach the skin below was good, renewing, and brought with it a sense of positivity that felt almost unfamiliar after so long.

He turned a final corner and began to head further away from the main structures, away from the familiar sounds and smells of life on the base. As the people grew fewer and fewer, he could feel himself relaxing further, feet falling into a steady rhythm as he slipped into an almost meditative state even as he walked.

He was jarred from that by an unexpected voice at his side. “Morning.”

Kanan stopped suddenly. Distracted by his own thoughts, he hadn’t noticed anybody approaching. The voice didn’t startle him, exactly, but it sliced unexpectedly through his thoughts, and left him… Okay, it startled him a little.

He expanded his awareness to take in more of the world around him; a narrow focus was fine for simply getting around, but when speaking to another person, it felt more comfortable to have some kind of awareness of them beyond their voice. It wasn’t necessary, but it helped.

There was nobody else around, just himself and the other person. He was male, and not someone that Kanan recognized, either from his voice or his Force signature. He turned to face him. “Morning,” he repeated.

“Sorry,” the person said. “Didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

Kanan shook his head. “You didn’t,” he said. Actually, he had, but all he had interrupted was a short walk to his meditation spot; as long as the man didn’t intend to interrupt the meditation itself, Kanan was willing to let that go.

“Okay, good.” He sounded relieved by that Kanan still didn’t know who he was talking to. Not somebody he had a lot of contact with, then. He knew that in two ways; firstly, he didn’t even vaguely recognize the voice in that can’t-quite-place-it kind of way, and secondly, most people that spent a lot of time with him would have thought to tell him who they were, even though he probably wouldn’t have needed them to.

He sounded young, late teens, early twenties, not far from Ezra’s age probably, though some voices could be deceptive that way. He had no accent that would place him as originating on any particular world, or as belonging to any particular species. He could be anybody.

The sensible thing would be to ask; politely remind the other person that he couldn’t see him, and was having difficulty working out who he was, but something stopped him. Not only was he was interested to see whether he could figure it out for himself, but he was reluctant, to admit a weakness, even one that that would be obvious to anybody who actually thought about it for a moment.

It wasn’t a helpful reaction. Ezra needed to develop good habits, learn to be honest about such things; it would make things so much easier for him in the long run, and Kanan in turn needed to learn to set a good example in that regard. But then, Ezra wasn’t here right now, so he could indulge himself a little, and be as bad an example as he wanted. Anyway, the more he thought about it, the more impolite it seemed for the person not to introduce himself.

If not for Ezra he wouldn’t have minded; suddenly, the little things bothered him again.

He folded his arms casually. “So, what can I do for you?”

“Do? Nothing. I just wanted to check… to ask… I’d have asked him, but I haven’t seen him around, which is understandable I guess, isn’t it? But, how is he? Is he okay?” The person’s feet shuffled on the ground as he waited for a response.

Kanan shook his head, confused. He was missing something here. He could sense concern coming from the man now, but…

“Ezra, I mean,” the person supplied, clearly realizing how little sense he had been making. “Is Ezra okay?”

Oh. And suddenly it all clicked into place. He had known the information was out there, but it was a shock to find himself confronted with it like this. He could only imagine how Ezra must have felt the day before, when the same thing had happened to him without any warning. Kanan frowned thoughtfully, trying to buy himself a little time; he found that he didn’t know how to answer.

He couldn’t deny it, or deny knowledge, as he almost instinctively did. Rumors and chatter had a tendency to get out of hand, to spread and evolve, to be embellished and changed by each person whose lips they passed over. For Kanan to blatantly lie would add fuel to that fire. The best way to handle it was with honesty.

But before he confirmed the truth of what he _thought_ the person was talking about, he had to make sure the talk hadn’t already evolved. “I think that probably depends on why you think he might not be,” he said.

“I heard…” the man hesitated. “I heard something. People are saying he’s going… blind?” His voice dropped to almost a whisper at that final word, full of uncertainty, as though he was suddenly unsure that he had heard right, and had realized that if the rumor was genuinely just a rumor, Kanan may not have been the right person to go to. At all.

The poor guy probably still assumed Kanan knew who he was, too, and was contemplating some kind of consequence for his stupidity. Kanan almost felt sorry for him now.

“Ezra’s going to be fine,” he said.

He felt surprise and embarrassment from the other man, and realized his mistake immediately.

“I don’t mean…” he amended quickly. Being ‘fine’ and being unable to see were not mutually exclusive, and sometimes he forgot that not everybody realized that. “You heard right.”

“Oh, but…” The other person hesitated, waiting for more.

“He’s _going to be_ okay,” Kanan added. Still not quite answering the original question. Was Ezra okay? No, not yet. But he would be.

The man remained silent for a few moments thinking. “So, what is it?” he asked in a hushed tone. “What’s caused it? Is it something to do with the f…” he stopped, not giving voice to whatever theory he had heard or come up with.

Kanan shook his head. He wasn’t going to stand and be quizzed about this; these were not his answers to give, at least not until he had a conversation with Ezra about it. That was something that he should have done the day before, now that he thought about it

“If you’ve got questions, you should…” he began, and stopped. Who should he direct him to? Certainly not to Ezra. “Go visit the med droid,” he said.

“Med droid?” The man repeated thoughtfully. “So it’s something medical. Hey,” he laughed nervously, “it’s not contagious, is it?”

Kanan bit back a sarcastic answer and instead ignored the ridiculous question and turned away. “Med droid,” he repeated. “You’ll find him really helpful, trust me.”

Behind him, he was still aware of the man’s presence, watching him go.

Enno-fifteen would be less than helpful; trying to get any patient information out of him was thankfully impossible without the correct permissions, and the man didn’t even know what condition to ask about in general terms. The most he would leave with was a lecture about patient confidentiality, and an eye test.

Somehow, Kanan couldn't bring himself himself feel bad about that.


	2. Chapter 2

Somebody was watching her. Sabine could almost sense the eyes on her, observing. Somewhere at the very edge of her peripheral vision, she was aware of a presence, but when she turned her head to look, to assess the situation for danger, she found nothing. Well, not _nothing_ , but no danger; four people, all of whom she recognized and trusted. One of them was looking straight at her.

The instant their eyes met, he looked down at the ground, then turned away, back to his friends, and carried on with whatever they had been doing.

It was one of the pilots, one of the two that she had helped defect from the academy. Not Wedge, the other one… even stranger name than ‘Wedge’…

Hobbie. That was it. Why did she have so much trouble remembering that? She wondered idly whether it was his real name, or a nickname.

There were eyes on her again. She glanced across to find him watching her for a second time. This time, he smiled nervously, and awkwardly raised a hand in greeting. Puzzled, she copied the gesture, and watched as he exchanged quick words with his companions, and headed toward her.

She watched as he approached, dodging a dokma that crossed his path, and almost tripped over a second one following close behind it. The things seemed to be everywhere, suddenly; she had been writing it off as her imagination, but there were definitely more of them around.

Hobbie stopped a few feet away from her, still wearing a strange smile. He raised a hand and ran it through his hair nervously, looking down at the ground. “Hey,” he said. “Uh…” 

She really hoped he wasn’t going to ask her out.

“Have you seen Ezra around?” he asked. “Because there’s something I _really_ need to talk to him about, and I haven’t seen him all day.”

She had. The last time she had seen him, he had been heading away after doing his best to keep his head down while they helped move some supplies around. Nobody had said anything, nobody had so much as looked at him strangely -- actually, they had, but she didn’t think Ezra had noticed -- but she could see how desperately he had wanted to be elsewhere. And now he was. She wasn’t sure where he had gone, but she had little doubt that he was still there, hiding.

She shrugged. “He’s around,” she told him. It wasn’t exactly a lie, he just wasn’t around _here_.

Hobbie nodded, then half-turned as if to leave. He stopped before he could complete the move, and turned back to face her her again. “There’s nothing… going on, is there? It’s just he was saying some pretty odd stuff last night, and then this morning people have been saying some things. I just wanted to see him; make sure it was just talk.” 

Sabine felt her eyes narrow as she glanced at the remainder of the group that Hobbie had left behind. “What kind of things?”

“Um…” he scratched at a probably imaginary itch on the side of his nose, and shook his head. “Forget it, it’s stupid.”

She was starting to get a very bad feeling about this. Over to her left, the group of pilots started to laugh loudly. She hadn’t heard the joke. They were probably talking about something totally different now, or these might not even be the people that Hobbie had been referring too. Still, she couldn't help the stab of anger at the sound. People shouldn't be happy today. She didn’t know if she would ever be able to laugh again.

“What kind of things?” she asked again, managing to keep her voice calm, though she could feel it shaking.

He grinned; a lopsided, uncertain expression that was as unnatural and forced as her calm tone. “Okay, there’s this crazy rumor going round that _Ezra_ ’s going blind now too.” He forced out a laugh. “But, there’s no truth to that, right?”

She had known that was coming, but still she found herself surprised by it, momentarily unable to bring herself to confirm what he was obviously hoping she was going to laugh off. Hobbie was watching her carefully, reading her reaction, and she saw his smile falter at her silence.

She considered her options. She could confirm the truth of the rumor, or she could deny it. Denial would be stupid, it was going to be general knowledge soon, and as much as she wished she could say it wasn’t true, it was. Lying might feel better for a moment, but it wouldn’t really help anything. Of course, there was a third option: say nothing at all. If people wanted to talk, let them. She wasn’t going to join in.

“I think you were probably right the first time,” she told him. “When you said you needed to talk to Ezra about this.”

What remained of Hobbie’s smile fell away in an instant, replaced by shock and disbelief. He shook his head, and Sabine realized that she had just confirmed the rumor, as surely as if she had simply answered his question.

“Is he okay?” Hobbie asked. He was still shaking his head slowly from side to side. “I mean, no, I guess not. He seemed a little… last night… He said everyone would know soon enough. But this? When did he find out? What’s causing it? There’s gotta be something they can do, right?”

Sabine scowled. “Do you want to maybe take a breath between questions? It might give people a chance to answer.”

“Sorry.” Hobbie fell silent, waiting.

And now she was going to have to answer, which she hadn’t actually intended to do. Maybe that was for the best, though; the last thing Ezra would want to deal with right now was a barrage of well-meaning questions, and it would be the same ones over and over again from every single person.

No wonder he was reluctant to come out of his room right now. He had obviously thought ahead and realized that this was going to happen.

“Look,” she said, and took a deep breath. “No, they can’t do anything about it. If they could, it wouldn’t be that much of a problem, would it?” She winced internally at the sarcasm in her voice, and softened her tone slightly as she continued. “Hera’s made a file that’ll answer all your questions; if I get you a copy, can you maybe share it around, with instructions not to bug Ezra with questions? He’s probably not gonna answer them anyway.”

Hobbie hesitated, then nodded his head quickly. “Uh, yeah. Yeah sure, of course. I’ll make sure we all leave him alone.”

“No, not _alone_. Just not bombarded with questions. Treat him the same as normal, because he _is_. Okay?”

“Yeah. Of course!” Hobbie folded, and then unfolded, his arms, then glanced around them and took half a step closer. “How do I even do that?” he asked quietly.

She shrugged. “Figure it out. Just like the rest of us.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Captain Syndulla…”

Hera turned to see one of her lieutenants jogging toward her with a datapad in his hand. She slowed to a stop and waited for him to catch up.

All around her, life was carrying on as normal; the base bore no outward signs of the strange mood that had settled over the Ghost crew since Ezra’s announcement. She had seen it first in Kanan, before she had known, then felt it herself, and finally watched it infect both Sabine and Zeb. Ezra had been affected too, of course, but in a different way. But when she ventured outside of the ship, among other people, it became easy to forget, just for a little while, what was happening.

Of course, that only lasted for so long before the thought returned, forced its way into her mind and settled there, clinging even tighter than before.

The lieutenant sidestepped around a group of the dokma that were traveling slowly through the center of the base. She turned her attention to them for a few moments; they were not shy creatures, but it was rare to see them moving around the more populated areas like that. Glanced around, she couldn’t help but notice more of them. They weren’t doing anything in particular, simply moving around in all directions and in greater numbers than she had ever noticed before.

“… that you asked for. Captain?”

She blinked. The man was holding out the datapad for her. Wordlessly, she took it and glanced at the screen.

“The mission reports that you asked for,” he said again. “The latest ones from the Cathonie system.”

Hera nodded, quickly flicked through the files to ensure they were all there, and switched off the screen. “Thank you.”

“No problem, Captain. Do you mind if I ask a question?”

She shook her head. “No, of course not.”

“Lieutenant Bridger,” the man said. “I’m assuming you’re going to be without him, for a little while at least. Are you anticipating any problems because of that? Is there anything I, or anybody else, could do to make things a little easier?”

Hera frowned, taken aback slightly. It wasn’t just the question itself; the fact that this man who, as far as she knew, hadn’t been told by Ezra or any of the crew, knew what was happening, but also the matter-of-fact way in which he asked. It was as though this was completely normal, a minor problem to be overcome.

She looked him up and down, and detected no malice, no ulterior motive; he didn’t appear to think that he might be able to replace Ezra on the crew, nor did he seem to be implying that that was something that she might need. He appeared to be asking out of a genuine desire to help. He just… wasn’t upset about it.

And why would he be? She wasn’t even sure he knew Ezra, at least not in any meaningful way. She had never seen them together outside of the occasional mission briefing. It didn’t matter to him in the same way that it did to her.

She shook her head. “Thanks,” she said, trying not to sound ungrateful. “I think we’ll cope for now. It’ll be an adjustment, but we’ve had to make them before. I appreciate the offer though, and if I think of anything you can do, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

The man nodded curtly, a gesture one step down from a salute, then turned and walked away. She watched him go, mind reeling slightly. All over the base, life still carried on; she wondered how many of the other people that she could see around her had heard, and simply didn’t… no, it wasn’t that they didn't _care_ , it simply didn’t impact them in any significant way.

She supposed that was good; it wouldn’t do to have the whole squadron grind to a halt, and it made perfect sense. One person’s tragedy was another’s interesting anecdote. The same thing had happened with Kanan, now she thought about it, though she wasn’t sure that he was aware.

It still felt very uncomfortable to see it happening again.


	4. Chapter 4

“… can’t just be a coincidence, can it?”

Zeb felt the conversation that was happening behind him grab his attention, without being quite sure why. Surreptitiously, he turned his head and adjusted the angle of his ears to better take in the words. The wind direction was favorable for moving the sound in his direction, and judging by the distance, the two humans probably thought that their hushed conversation was completely private.

“No, I guess not,” the second human, a female, replied. “So, the Force, really?”

There was a pause, which Zeb, facing in the opposite direction in an attempt not to make his eavesdropping obvious, mentally filled in with some kind of gesture. It had taken him some time to get the hang of human body language, but he imagined the male shrugging his shoulders, or some facial expression with a similar meaning. “Only thing that makes sense, isn’t it? Two people, both Jedi; what’s the one thing that Jedi do that nobody else does?”

“I guess. But the ones before, in the time of the Republic, they could see.”

The man sighed. “How many Jedi did you know back then?”

“Well, I was eight when the war ended, so…” 

“So there you go,” the man interrupted. “I wasn’t talking about back then anyway. All I’m saying is, the Jedi died out a long time ago, and maybe there’s a reason for that. Maybe there’s a price to pay for messing around with the Force…”

That was enough of that. Zeb stopped what he was doing and turned to face the two humans. He didn’t know what he was going do, but he was going to do something; say something. He didn’t know much about the Ashla, but he knew it wasn’t responsible for any of this, and he wasn’t going to have people thinking that Ezra had brought his misfortune on himself.

“I guess it makes sense,” the female said. “But wow, poor kid. Not like he had any way of knowing. Do you think if he stopped using it…”

Zeb covered the distance between himself and the two speakers in purposeful strides. He saw the exact moment they noticed him approaching, as first the woman and then her companion stopped their conversation and stilled, sharing a nervous glance.

Well, that was easy. Zeb paused his approach and stood a short distance from the pair, close enough that they would be able to correctly assume that he could hear every word. He did nothing, simply stood, watching them, waiting.

The man cleared his throat. “Hey, so I’m gonna go get on those repairs,” he said. “See you later?”

The woman nodded wordlessly and watched him go, before turning and walking away, eyes downcast to avoid Zeb’s stare.

Zeb grinned, triumphant. True, if rumors like that were going to start flying around it was going to take more than an imposing glare to shut them down, but for now at least, it was dealt with. People might be a little bit more careful what they said and when they said it.

“Oh, very nicely done.”

Zeb turned at the familiar, sarcastic tone beside him and found himself looking at AP-5. He grimaced at the droid. “What do _you_ want?”

“Me? Oh, nothing. Just to tell you how _pleased_ I am for you that you’ve finally found your purpose in life: an intimidating conversation-blocker! Want someone to shut up and get on with some work? Just wheel out the big guy and have him stand nearby. You must be so proud.”

Zeb folded his arms and turned his glare back on, directed at the droid this time. “Go away, I’m not interested in exchanging insults right now.”

“No, of course you’re not. That would involve thinking of something to say, and we all know that _that’s_ where you tend to fall down. As it happens though, it wasn’t an insult. Frankly, a conversation-blocker is exactly what we need around here; with all these rumors flying around, nobody is getting _anything_ done.”

“Rumors?” Zeb asked. Was there more than one?

“Yes, ‘ _rumor_ ’. It’s a word for a story, the truth of which is unknown, spreading through an environment.”

“I know what a rumor is!” Zeb told the droid. “I just… Oh, forget it!”

He got the distinct impression that behind his expressionless ‘face’ the droid was grinning maliciously. “There’s one about you, you know. But I won’t share it, I can see how much you hate friendly conversation. Anyway, if you want to do something else useful, why don’t you see if you can intimidate the local wildlife. These dokma are getting into everything recently, and _they’re_ causing quite the distraction too.”

Zeb sighed. The droid was right, the things were everywhere. He didn’t care, he had much more important things to worry about. “Do you even know what’s going on right now? With Ezra? I’m not in the _mood_ for…”

“Yes, yes, I heard,” AP-5 interrupted. “Had to overhear it third or fourth-hand from a group of mechanics in the supply depot, because of _course_ no one thought to actually come and tell me. Oh, by the way, if you would let Lieutenant Bridger know; I can always use an assistant. I’m assuming he’s not going to be allowed on missions for a while, and C1-10P is next to useless.”

“I’m going,” Zeb told him. “Somewhere else. Away from you.”

AP-5 took a stop backward. “Oh good,” he said. “Please don’t feel obligated to come back anytime soon.”

Zeb turned and stomped away, deliberately not turning back and looking at the droid. He didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

**Author's Note:**

> ♥ Comments are loved ♥


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